Very Computer

by **Cristian Barbaros** » Sun, 26 Jan 2003 04:02:04

I have trouble printing a simple text file on a HP g55 deskjet
printer.
The text contains portuguese characters like ??? ...
The printer gives me some strange greek letters instead.
The file is in iso-8859 encoding, at least this is what the "file"
command says. I tried also to convert it with "iconv -f iso8859-1 -t
windows-1252" but the result was exactly the same. I am using RedHat
7.3.
I would appreciate any help.
Cristian Barbarosie http://www.ptmat.fc.ul.pt/~barbaros

by **Dr. Yuan Li** » Mon, 27 Jan 2003 04:40:46

> I have trouble printing a simple text file on a HP g55 deskjet
> printer.
> The text contains portuguese characters like ??? ...
> The printer gives me some strange greek letters instead.
> The file is in iso-8859 encoding, at least this is what the "file"
> command says. I tried also to convert it with "iconv -f iso8859-1 -t
> windows-1252" but the result was exactly the same. I am using RedHat
> 7.3.
> I would appreciate any help.
> Cristian Barbarosie http://www.ptmat.fc.ul.pt/~barbaros

You may want to specify the printing system you are using (BSD, LPRng,
CUPS, ...). All work with some kind of filters. You either need to
build your own filter as it is apparent that your deskjet doesn't speak
Portuguese by default, or you can get some prebuilt filters for your
printer. Portugese is probably supported by deskjet, so writing a
filter isn't that complicated, if you have the printer manual. (Usually
just an escape sequence.)

Hope this helps.

Yuan Liu

by **Cristian Barbaros** » Wed, 29 Jan 2003 01:21:51

Quote:> You may want to specify the printing system you are using (BSD, LPRng,
> CUPS, ...). All work with some kind of filters. You either need to
> build your own filter as it is apparent that your deskjet doesn't speak
> Portuguese by default, or you can get some prebuilt filters for your
> printer. Portugese is probably supported by deskjet, so writing a
> filter isn't that complicated, if you have the printer manual. (Usually
> just an escape sequence.)

I use LPRng. Here is the contents of my /etc/printcap file.

g55:\
:ml=0:\
:mx=0:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/g55:\
:af=/var/spool/lpd/g55/g55.acct:\
:sh:\
:lp=/var/run/ptal-printd/mlc_par_OfficeJet_G55:\
:lpd_bounce=true:\
:if=/usr/share/printconf/util/mf_wrapper:

g55s:\
:ml=0:\
:mx=0:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/g55s:\
:af=/var/spool/lpd/g55s/g55s.acct:\
:sh:\
:lp=/var/run/ptal-printd/mlc_par_OfficeJet_G55:\
:lpd_bounce=true:\
:if=/usr/share/printconf/util/mf_wrapper:

As for the printer manual, no hope! HP's manual says absolutely nothing useful.

In the meanwhile, I managed to print the file by using the a2ps program.
Interesting enough, a2ps works OK on the ISO-8859 version, while the
"extended ascii" version brings up strange escape sequences.

Thank you for your help.
Cristian Barbarosie http://www.ptmat.fc.ul.pt/~barbaros

by **Dr. Yuan Li** » Wed, 29 Jan 2003 17:31:56

>>You may want to specify the printing system you are using (BSD, LPRng,
>>CUPS, ...). All work with some kind of filters. You either need to
>>build your own filter as it is apparent that your deskjet doesn't speak
>>Portuguese by default, or you can get some prebuilt filters for your
>>printer. Portugese is probably supported by deskjet, so writing a
>>filter isn't that complicated, if you have the printer manual. (Usually
>>just an escape sequence.)

[snip]
> As for the printer manual, no hope! HP's manual says absolutely nothing useful.

You are right. After my old, old DJ500 manual, they no longer include
basic PCL table in manuals. Fortunately, PCL is online - see
http://www.hp.com/cposupport/printers/support_doc/bpl02705.html.
ISO-8859-1, for example, is switched on by Ec(0N.

The real challenge to build a good filter is to auto filter. As file
often does a good job recognizing input, you can include it in your filter.

Yuan Liu

Quote:> In the meanwhile, I managed to print the file by using the a2ps program.
> Interesting enough, a2ps works OK on the ISO-8859 version, while the
> "extended ascii" version brings up strange escape sequences.

> Thank you for your help.
> Cristian Barbarosie http://www.ptmat.fc.ul.pt/~barbaros

Very Computer

printing iso8859 text

printing iso8859 text

printing iso8859 text

printing iso8859 text

printing iso8859 text